HISTORY, Jan. 30: Beatles perform in public for last time

Tuesday

Jan 30, 2018 at 2:00 AM

Editor’s note: It’s a small world. Thanks to reader Jim Wright of Wilmington who called to point out that Army Maj. James Lee pictured with Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Korea was a Wilmington native son. Lee, who died in September at the age of 90, went on to become a lieutenant general. Born in Scotts Hill, he graduated from New Hanover High School in 1944. His active military career spanned 41 years and he served in three wars.

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2018. There are 335 days left in the year.

On Jan. 30, 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese towns and cities.

In 1798, during a meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives in Philadelphia, Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat tobacco juice in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut (two weeks later, Griswold physically attacked Lyon on the House floor).

In 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, New York.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. The first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast.

In 1945, a Soviet submarine torpedoed the German transport ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea with the loss of more than 9,000 lives, most of them war refugees; roughly 1,000 people survived. The vessel was launched as a cruise liner in 1937 and requisitioned by the German Navy in 1939. Adolf Hitler marked the 12th anniversary of his appointment as chancellor with his last public speech, calling on Germans to keep resisting until victory.

In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.) Aviation pioneer Orville Wright, 76, died.

In 1969, The Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop the headquarters of Apple records in London; it was the group's last public performance.

In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the American hostages freed from Iran.

In 2008, the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate for the second time in just over a week, reducing the federal funds rate by a half point to 3 percent.